The BlackBerry Beta Zone app for BlackBerry 10 has been updated and for the first time, we’re seeing third party developers leverage Beta Zone to test apps. The most recent addition to Beta Zone is MockIt! which can be downloaded and tested for free. The developer of the app, OSBB Code Labs founder Jeremy Duke, is a big contributor to the BlackBerry Dev community through OpenSourceBB.com as well as a prolific developer on BlackBerry World.
The premise of MockIt! is to give users Memes, Picture Frames (coming soon) and Mockups all in one app. It’s a very straightforward app and you immediately understand how to use it.

Memes

Creating a meme is simple with the MockIt! app and the sharing process is perfect for BBM Channels and friends. It would be great if the app had some integration with Reddit via the Reddit in Motion app, as Reddit is the obvious place to share your favourite memes.

Mocks

For any developer, the Mockups feature is wonderful. Not only can you use the Mockup tool for marketing purposes, like sharing your app on social media, but you can also use this feature for blogging, just like in this post.

UX Note: when you’re creating a mockup, the app forces you to choose a background before you can MockIt!. This is odd because often you just want to use a white background. It makes sense to allow the user to MockIt! without selecting the background and simply use white as the default.

Conclusions

The app features Memes, Device Mocks and Pic Frames. These are all really fun features but one of them seems to stand out like a sore thumb. This is where the app seems to be two totally separate apps that have been slammed together but don’t seem to really go together. Memes and Pic Frames are fun consumer features, while Device Mocks is really something only developers would be interested in. So why combine them?

Some of the best apps out there are the best simply because of their simplicity. Instagram was a few simple filters and a feed. Camera Plus was even simpler with just filters. Twitter is just 140 characters in a feed. All of these apps are great because they know exactly who they’re catering to. So while the app’s design is great, the implementation of features is off.